Maiden's Blush
by Rain Sky
Summary: WA Writing Challenge August 2008. Kururin, jealous of Bijou, holds her ransom... but Bijou has had enough of being a damsel-in-distress if that means being lumped in with 'o sweet princess Kururin'. ONE SHOT.


A/N: This is written for the Writers Anonymous August challenge. Rhea, I decided to use all six words: _securely_, _six_, _today's_, _playhouse_, _bot_, and _mauve_. Since I had no plot bunnies mutating under my bed, I picked the most random fandom (rhyme!) that I haven't touched for years – Hamtaro! It manages to take care of the words "playhouse" and "bot" at any rate, so I can work off that. I will use 'Hamtaro' and not 'Ham-tarou' as I like because the former looks better. I prefer Bijou to Ribbon, but I like most of the Japanese names better.

This is a light read, something to pass time. I have bolded the aforementioned words within the text.

* * *

It was Tuesday, another ordinary day of the week. It wasn't just-back-from-the-weekend Monday, and it wasn't one-more-day-'til-the-weekend Friday, either. It wasn't a gloomy, cloudy day, but it wasn't a remarkably sunny day that all the story books tell folks to utilize for picnics, either. What a snooze.

An orange-and-white ball of fur sniffed around for the scent of a bright new day and was disappointed. How could the little hamster and his friends have fun if it wasn't a glorious day? Hiroko had already left for school, so Hamtaro resigned himself to running on his wheel to whittle away the long hours alone. As he contentedly ran, he noticed Mecha Jirou was set on Hiroko's desk. _Grandpa must have made some improvements for the next __**bot**__ tournament that he wants Hiroko to test out._

Hamtaro, curious hamster as he was, wanted to know what. He left his cage to make his way to Hiroko's desk, but at the same moment, another hamster emerged to greet him.

"Hamtaro!" the smaller white hamster delightedly exclaimed.

"Bijou!" Hamtaro smiled at his good friend. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Bijou didn't normally make house calls, and so Hamtaro found his curiosity diverted by her presence.

She smiled a shy, delicate smile and answered, "I have something to share with you at the Clubhouse. You… aren't busy, are you?"

"Nuh-uh!" Hamtaro was glad for the visit; time always seemed to pass with friends around.

* * *

In Bijou's personal area in the Clubhouse, Hamtaro found a whole gathering of hamsters already there. Lapis and Lazuli were there: Lapis with her deep blue cape worn as a riding hood and Lazuli with her blush and her red bow with white polka-dots. Miss Oshare was there with her enormous orange ribbon and her trademark picnic hat with a pink sash around the brim, smiling with kind eyes as she always did. Himawari, wearing her usual sunflower namesake barrette and carrying her little orange pouch around her shoulder was reclining on Bijou's pristine white mini-sofa. Hamtaro himself moved to stand near Himawari.

Eyeing something roughly the size of a hamster covered in a fine satin sheet, he whispered to Oshare, "Hey, do you know what Bijou is planning?"

Oshare whispered back in her French accent, "I do not, I am afraid." Having lived most of her early life in France, Oshare could reminisce with Bijou on days spent on French shores, and was closest to Bijou.

"Now that everyone is here…" Bijou began, intentionally secretive for dramatic effect. She pulled the sheet off the mysterious item. "This is what I wanted to show you!"

Ooh's and Ah's filled the tiny room. A sparkling crystal music box in the shape of a grand piano sat in the little room, leaving a room Bijou had originally found too small even smaller. Bijou glowed at the admiration in her friends' eyes.

"That's beautiful," Oshare softly commented. "Where did you get such a thing?"

"Maria commissioned it especially for me." The affection in Bijou's voice could not be missed. "**Today's** the anniversary of the day she adopted me." Still over the moon for her gift, Bijou wound up the music box and let the melody play.

Hamtaro was no musician, but the melody was soothing and the sound was clear as a bell. He had heard Hiroko play with pink-bedecked toy musical boxes, but Bijou's music box sounded much better.

Bijou herself noticed that Hamtaro seemed to be enjoying the melody and her spirits lifted further.

Everyone was having a good time just relaxing to the orgel, but Panda, a hamster named so for his pattern of fur in gray and white, rushed in. "Bijou! There's that girl again! She's demanding to see you outside!"

Lapis, Lazuli, Oshare, and Himawari just stared at the frenzied Panda while Bijou's expression turned from delight to horror.

"Oh, _no!_" Bijou wailed. _Why today of all days?_ She had a fairly good idea who it was and what she wanted of her. Put off, Bijou quickly ushered all her friends out of her room. "_Pardon_, everyone! I do apologize. Perhaps another time…" She frantically groomed herself to perfection at her vanity, and instantly followed everyone out, **securely** shutting the tiny walnut door behind her. Bijou pushed past the hamsters to exit the Clubhouse, leaving her friends gaping.

"What was that all about?" Lapis asked, seeming a bit miffed. "We were all having a good time, too."

* * *

A couple hours later, Lazuli happened upon a note written on fancy stationery in a wildly **mauve** ink just outside the Clubhouse. "If you fools ever want to see Bijou again, you will surrender both Hamtaro and the orgel to me by **six** o' clock at my castle. Yours truly, Kururin," Lazuli murmured. She gasped.

Panicked, Lazuli ran straight for Hamtaro and showed him Kururin's ransom message. "Don't you _see_, Hamtaro? Kururin has Bijou!" It was Lazuli's turn to wail.

Hamtaro couldn't comprehend why Kururin would ever kidnap Bijou, but his devotion to friends was true, and he wouldn't let anyone use friendship against him for anything, even if the orgel really _was_ a sensational thing. Putting all silliness aside, Hamtaro declared, "There's nothing to be done, then. We're off to save Bijou!"

* * *

"Hey, Brandon!" Hamtaro called to Hiroko's affable dog.

Brandon was man's best friend, indeed, and as loyal as they got. No questions asked, Brandon went over to Hamtaro's side and knelt down to let the hamsters on.

Lapis, Lazuli, Oshare, Himawari, and Hamtaro all held on tight to the mini-orgel, struggling to move it onto Brandon's back. Brandon gently nudged them along, and they managed to anchor down comfortably in his fur coat.

"All right, Brandon," Hamtaro began to brief him in, "this is something important to Bijou, so we gotta be careful, okay? Now take us to Kururin's castle!" The sun was still high in the sky, but it was still the end of summer, and the position of the sun was no guarantee that they had a lot of time.

* * *

"So, how does it feel, Bijou?" Kururin asked, trying not to trip in her fairy-princess outfit. The way her fur was patterned across her face, Kururin resembled Hamtaro somewhat. She was hardly a stand-out hamster by looks. The way she tied her fur was much like the way Bijou did, though Kururin refused to wear ribbons that weren't her signature **mauve**. Having been raised like a pop diva, Kururin behaved in much the same manner Bijou had when she initially moved to Japan.

Bijou glared at Kururin in a much unladylike manner. "You will not win, Kururin!" Then, Bijou settled back into her old diva ways as well. "You call yourself a princess, but take a look around! This **playhouse** is _hardly_ anything to look at. I have a closet bigger than this dump."

"Why, you – " Kururin tried to cut in but was herself cut off.

"And, please, princesses don't have to abduct others to get what they want," Bijou's talent for scorn apparently did not simply rust away in atrophy. "That's the role of the evil witch, just in case you do not remember."

Kururin was about to remind Bijou that she was the one tied up, but a messenger entered the room. "Lady Kururin, it is Hamtaro! He and his friends have arrived, along with the musical box!"

For a moment, Kururin was caught unaware, with her mouth hanging open, but she quickly turned her gape to a smirk. "Well, well, my beloved Hamtaro calls. I must fly, dear Bijou." Kururin wondered just what the Ham-Hams saw in Bijou, and then remembered. _What do they seen in any of themselves? They're just low-class losers… except for Hamtaro._

Kururin's castle really was just a giant dollhouse, modified to fit the needs of a hamster. Kururin stepped outside her threshold only to get an affectionate sniffing from a gigantic dog. "Eek!" she jumped away, not wanting to get her dress sullied. When she was a safe distance away from Brandon, she dusted herself off. "Hmph. So you all decided to show."

"Of course we did!" Hamtaro indignantly proclaimed. "We don't let our friends go!"

"You should release Bijou _now!_" Himawari demanded angrily. Though she truly was irate, it was a new feeling for Himawari, and she could not bring herself to look convincingly threatening.

"Now why would I do that, when I have both Hamtaro and Bijou's silly music box here at my castle?" Kururin questioned, self-satisfied, without missing a beat.

"Perhaps because you have no leverage on us?" a lightly French-accented voice suggested from off to the side.

All six hamsters and the dog turned to look at Bijou, standing freely, and even a bit arrogantly, among Kurumi's prized white gardenias, which kept her movements camouflaged and discreet. Bijou seemed to glow under the setting sun in her aura of sweet victory.

"What? How did you – " Kururin couldn't believe her plan had been foiled, not in the least by this dumb girl who somehow had Hamtaro's heart. After all, wasn't _she_ the most amazing hamster ever? Kururin reviewed her carefully sculpted plans: kidnap Bijou and hold her ransom for Hamtaro and the music box. Where did she go wrong?

"The way you pay, your underlings were all too pleased with my small bribes!" It was Bijou's turn to smirk. "How long has it been since their last paycheck, o princess who commands her people's hearts?"

Lapis cheered the success of Bijou's initiative while Oshare hugged her best friend. Kururin fumed, but there was nothing Kururin could do. She had lost the game.

"Oh, _fine!_" Kururin huffed and stomped back into her castle. "You guys are still losers. I just didn't plan well. I'll plan better next time, and there won't be anything you guys can do oppose me!" She slammed the tiny Purple Heart door at the Ham-Hams.

"Why would we need to – " Bijou started another retort, but Hamtaro silenced her.

"You're all right, aren't you?" He asked, knowing that she was great. "So it's all okay. Don't keep beating at the subject when it's already dead. Some day… some day, Kururin won't hate us anymore. She might even become one of us, right?"

_That probably won't happen._ Bijou thought, but dropped the subject.

* * *

Hamtaro hurried back into his cage at the Haruna residence and made it just before Hiroko returned from regular school for a quick dinner before night school. He was out of breath, so he stayed near his wheel sleepily.

Hiroko was also hurried. Smiling, she said in one breath, "Hi – Hamtaro – how – were – you – today – hope – you – had –some – fun – today!" And then she was off again, needing sustenance before another four hours of cram school.

_Yeah, don't worry. It was pretty fun today._

* * *

Words (not including A/N): 1801


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